Fast Property Buyers vs. Estate Agents; what should you do?

Selling your home can be tough and there is often a lot of hidden costs with house sales. Up until recently, there has been only one way to sell your home – via an estate agent. However, with the growth of online services, there has been a shift in a property buying, which is great if you are looking to sell your home fast! Here, we look at two different methods of selling your property (estate agents and fast property buyers) and hopefully afterwards you’ll have a clearer idea if you’d prefer to go via the traditional route or sell your house fast to Vivo.

Finding you a buyer

Estate Agents: one of the main attractions of using an estate agent is that they have access to a large database of eager house hunters as well as local knowledge to help find you a buyer. They are well trained in property marketing and know how to ‘sell’ a house to the audience. They will take it on themselves to help arrange and conduct viewings of your property.

Fast Property Buyer: rather than finding you a buyer, we are your buyer. Selling to Vivo removes the entire house selling process – which helps you to sell your house quickly. Furthermore, rather than a long chain of communication between agents and potential buyers, you can have a direct correspondence with your buyers (us) and a guaranteed sale (selling via an estate agent also carries the threat of a deal collapsing). Lastly, as we buy your property directly, there isn’t a long house viewing process or an invasion of your privacy. Plus, at the speed with which we can buy your home, you won’t even have time to put up a ‘for sale’ sign!

Selling price and fees

Estate Agents: they will work hard to get you the highest price for your property even though most buyers tend to offer under the market price. Estate agents will use their attuned negotiation skills and knowledge of the local property market to get you a house sale that you will be happy with. For their services (including photographs, floorplans etc), estate agents tend to charge between 1-3% (+20% VAT) of the selling price of your home as well as any legal fees.

Fast Property Buyers: as a general rule we tend to make a cash offer for your property at a 15% discount to its market value. While this may seem like a reduction, we do not charge fees like estate agents. Plus, rather than wait 3-6 months to sell your home in the traditional way, we can buy your property quickly in as little as 7 days. Therefore, you will be saving around 6 months’ running costs such as council tax and utility bills, which certainly adds up. Furthermore, we buy sold-as-seen, so there will be no costs added to renovating your property in preparation for a house sale or emergency fixes if a house survey reveals an underlying problem with your property. Often in the house selling process time equals money.

Time

Estate Agents: if you are in no rush to sell your home quickly, the estate agent may be the preferred choice for you. As previously mentioned, it takes around 3-6 months to sell your home via this method (but could be much longer) which may be ideal if you have yet to find a suitable property. The downside of this route is if you are looking to sell your home fast; you have to account time for house viewings as well as the agonising wait to see if the chain holds up.

Fast Property Buyers: one of the main benefits of using this method is that you can sell your house fast. Vivo Property Buyers specialises in buying property quickly and you can sell to us in as little as 7 days. This is perfect if you desire a quick house sale, whether you are relocating, have inherited a property or want a quick release of funds. There is no delay with the Vivo way.

Trust

Estate Agents: as this is the traditional method to sell your home, estate agents tend to be seen as very trustworthy. Often such agents have a long running history and have been part of the local community. In addition, many house sellers want to establish a relationship with the person in charge of selling their home and feel secure in having an office that they can visit if they have any issues.

Fast Property Buyers: this route has certainly had image problems in the past, with a couple of companies taking advantage of vulnerable house sellers. However, organisations such as The Property Ombudsman now help to regulate this industry and protect consumers. Furthermore, at Vivo, we’re contactable 24/7 and are always here to help.

Overall there has been a huge growth in the way you are able to sell your home in recent years, and we think it is great for house sellers to have a variety of options in order to make the best choice for themselves. Using a fast property buyer like Vivo may not be for everyone but is also ideal for many others, here are our top tips for using this route.